This invention relates generally to the combination of a cuvette with integral optical elements and an electrical circuit with photoemissive and photosensitive elements in intimate optical contact with the cuvette optical elements.
This combination invention is rooted in the technical requirement of a curvette and analyzer stage, such as an electrical circuit, forming an assembly of unitary construction useful, for example, in an incubation assembly for incubating a seeded culture growth medium; more specifically, the requirement for a cuvette or cuvette assembly which has molded into it integrally formed optical elements and attached in intimate optical contact with an analytic device such as a microcircuit chip which has either on it or closely wired to it an electrooptical element such as photoemitters and photodetectors. The rationale for such combination is based on the efficient coupling of optical energy from the electrical circuit to the cuvette in situations where the efficiency of the optical coupling is material to the performance of the device with which it is associated, such as for example the above-noted incubation assembly.
Accordingly, it is the object of this invention to provide the new and useful combination of a cuvette with integral optics in intimate contact with the photoemissive and photosensitive elements of an electrical circuit.